Adopting Complexity Leadership in University Research and Innovation Management

The aim of this chapter is to provide an alternative perspective to managing universities' capacities for change through the lens of complexity leadership, more specifically in the realm of research management. It does so by developing and proposing a leadership framework underpinned by three dimensions: complexity leadership principle statements applicable to the university setting; the attributes, roles, and leadership functions of university agents to best support the needs of a complex context and organization; and general guidelines on how to activate the change process towards more collaborative, responsible, and sustainable research actions. The chapter's intended contributions are two-fold: to contribute to the growing yet underexplored literature on complex leadership in managing change in the university setting and to propose an actionable framework that can boost the contributions and sustainability of higher education institutions.

Need for Leadership in Times of Crises

The aim of this chapter is to give a comprehensive framework through integrating the modern and post-modern leadership approaches in times of crises. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to great challenges worldwide. Organizing in times of crisis or crisis management has gained greater attention much more than before. Pandemic new workforce created new perspectives on the basis of leadership. This study provides detailed information about both modern leadership types as autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, charismatic, transformational, transactional, and post-modern leadership types as spiritual, resonant, agile, relational social constructionist, and hybrid. In chaotic and uncertain environment, the leadership types and their effectiveness are analyzed and discussed at the heart of social exchange, social identity, leader-member exchange, self-determination, and complexity leadership theoretical point of views and related empirical findings.

The Complex Case of Noncredit Credential Innovation in Public Universities

Four-year public institutions of higher education (IHEs) face increasing pressure to innovate with noncredit credentials. The chapter aims to develop leaders' mental models for navigating unique complexities associated with offering programs that do not award academic credit. First, a review of noncredit literature and organizational science principles explains that noncredit programming is often unaligned with IHE organizational culture and structure. Then, two metaphors for leaders' roles in overcoming barriers to innovation are introduced and critiqued: Buller's organic leadership concept and Christensen and Eyring's higher education DNA concept. Complexity leadership theory is next presented as a mental model to understand three complementary leader roles for fostering innovation with a complex organizational environment. Finally, the chapter's case features three vignettes from public IHE continuing education leaders that exemplify the complexities related to pursuing noncredit credential innovation. Strategies and discussion questions are included.

Strategy in the era of “swans”: the role of strategic leadership under uncertainty and unpredictability

PurposeThe purpose of this conceptual paper is to explore the role of strategic leadership under conditions of uncertainty and unpredictability. The authors argue that highly improbable, but high-impact events require the upper echelons of management, traditionally the custodians of strategy formulation to offer a new kind of strategic leadership focused on new mindsets, organizational capabilities, more in tune with high uncertainty and unpredictability.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on strategic leadership, and complexity leadership theory, the authors review the literature and present a conceptual framework for exploring the nature of strategic leadership under uncertainty. The authors conceptualize organizations as complex adaptive systems and discuss the imperatives for developing new mental models for emergent leadership.FindingsStrategic leaders have a key role to play in preparing their organizations for episodic disruptions. These include developing their adaptive capabilities and building resilient organizations to ensure their organizations cannot only bounce back after a disruption but have the capacity for transformation to new fitness levels when necessary. Strategic leaders must engage with complexity leadership by seeing their organizations as complex adaptive systems, reconfigure their leadership approaches and organizations to build strategic adaptive capability.Research limitations/implicationsThis is a conceptual paper and the authors cannot make any claims of causality.Practical implicationsOrganizational leaders need to reconfigure their mental models and leadership approaches to reflect the new normal of uncertainty and unpredictability. Developing the strategic adaptive capability of organizations should prepare them for dealing with high impact events. To assure business continuity in the face of disruptions requires building flexible, adaptable business models.Originality/valueThe paper focuses on how managers can offer strategic leadership for a new normal that challenges some of our most cherished leadership and strategic management paradigms. The authors explore the new mental models and leadership models in an era of great uncertainty.

From the Cottage to the Cage – Exploring the Efficacy of Complexity Leadership Theory in Addressing 21st Century Workplace Toxicity.

The issue of workplace toxicity constitutes a major problem for employers, employees and society at large. Toxicity in a workplace context relates to damaging behaviours perpetrated by individuals and organisations that netatively impact on the health and wellbeing of others. Workplace toxicty is habitually associated with activities such as bullying, harrassment, unethical and even illegal acts. In this article, today’s workplace is likenened to a cage where ambition and greed drive people to engage in toxic behaviour to fight for whatever scarce rewards are on offer. Set against a backdrop of continuous demands on employees in a era of constant change and challenge, leadership practice in the 21st century is understandably seeped in complexity. Whilst conditions of scarcity are in fact constructed by employers in today’s lean environments, workplace toxicity has significant implications for organisational leaders in terms of work place disputes, absenteeism and litigation etc. Twentieth century hierarchial and autocratic leadership models are now deemed to be both obsolete and wholly inadedgate to inform leadership practice in the knowledge era. This conceptual article looks at the efficacy of complexity leadership theory (CLT) in empowering today’s leader to better understand and address 21st century workplace toxicity.